Piparkakku, latest variation

It is the time of the year, again, and I couldn't help but start to bake piparkakku, of course.
Every evening my dearest family is munching loads of Finnish gingerbread, even though I tried hard to save some from being eaten and have a chance to decorate first.. I suppose I will just have to make larger batches.
It all starts by "which shape can we eat?", but then they'll take them all. *Sigh*..
Apologies for the image quality, I'll try to shoot a better with areal camera later, but at least I got the recipe up early, and there is plenty of time to bake them before December.

Ingredients
250 g butter
1.5 dl dark maple syrup (a bit more than a 1/2 cups)
2 dl sugar (a bit less than a cup)
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp ginger (I always add a bit less as it is a very strong taste, so play with it as you wish)
2 tsp cloves, ground
1 tsp cardamom (powder)
2 small eggs
pinch of salt
1 tsp baking soda (kinda humpy) 
500g all purpose flour

Melt the butter with the sugar, syrup and spices until just starts to bubble and is smooth, with both the sugar and butter melted. Remove from heat.
Start beating the two eggs, lightly until foamy, and add the butter-syrup-sugar mixture until well combined.
Fold in the flour, first about one third, mix until homogeneous, and slowly mix in the rest.
Put aside in the fridge for a night.

You can keep them in the fridge for up to 3 days, or freeze and bake at your own convenience.
If you freeze them, remember to remove it from the freezer about 3 hours before you want to use it, it takes minimum 2 hours to soften at room temperature.

Lightly flour the surface of the batter both beneath and on top, and roll it out thin, about 3-4 mm. As you roll add some more flour beneath, it is quite inconvenient to have the shapes stick to the bottom and come up in weird forms.
If you cut more than you can bake, put them in the fridge even for just minutes before they get baked, they will hold their shapes better.
Bake them at 400 F, 200 C, for 6-8 minutes in the middle rack.

I baked little Xmas trees from the cookies seen above on the right, and some Advent candle holders.
Not that we would be religious, but they just look so good as table decoration, don't they?
Place them in airtight containers, and they will be just as good even after 6 weeks. 
Happy baking!

Almond pie crust - mantelitaikina

Simple crust recipe for the typical Finnish sweet piirakka / pie.
I just love them with all sorts of fillings, so I am adding the crust recipes one by one, as they get to our table.
Hope you'll enjoy.

Ingredients
125 g butter
3/4 dl sugar (1/3 cup)
3/4 dl almond flour (1/3 cup)
3 dl (1 1/4 cup) flour

Mix well the butter with the sugar until creamy. Add the flour and almond flour, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes. 

Ready to be used.
It is also possible to freeze and use when needed. It is ready to be used in about 15-20 minutes as you got it out of the freezer.
Enjoy!

PS.  If you use powdered sugar, you can just mix the ingredients without worrying about the creaminess.

Túrósbukta - cottage cheese buns

Long time since I baked the last yeast based goodie, so I decided today is the day when I should bake some.
No better choice for a fresh start than the cottage cheese buns. We just looove them!
As a bonus I found a new way to fold them at "Bucataresele vesele"... This provokes action!

I didn't use the recipe from "Bucataresele vesele" this time for many reasons, mainly because I wasn't sure how the dough with 3 eggs will look like, so I stick to my well working yeast dough. Next, when I have some inclination for experimenting I will try.

Ingredients
600 g flour
1/2 tsp salt
350 ml milk (maybe less is enough, you can try starting with 320, but with my Costco bread flour I have to add the 350 ml)
3 humpy tbps sugar 
1.5 tsp dry yeast 
1 egg
1/2 lemon zest
dash of vanilla extract
60 g melted butter or 50 ml oil 
1/2 tsp cardamom, optional

Filling

500 g cottage cheese (in US you'll need to place the cottage cheese in a gauze and squeeze the liquid out of it as much as you can you'll get a too runny filling to work with)
100 g sugar

2-3 egg yolks
1/2 lemon zest
dash of vanilla extract
3 tbsp grits
1-2 tbsp lemon juice

1 egg for brushing

Warm up the milk a little bit, sprinkle the yeast to the top, spread a good pinch of sugar on the yeast and sprinkle some flour. Let it trot for 10 minutes.

Start mixing in the remaining sugar, dash of vanilla extract, salt, egg, lemon zest and flour. Work the dough together for about 10 minutes with a food processor or with hands.

Melt the butter, and last mix it in the dough. When the dough is elastic, leave it for 60+ minutes to grow to about double.
Meanwhile prepare the filling. Mix the egg yolks with the sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice and vanilla extract, and add it to the cottage cheese. Mix in the grits, and let it sit covered in the fridge until the dough is ready.
When the dough had risen nicely, cut it into two parts, and let it sit for 15 more minutes.
Heat up the oven to 400 F, 200 C and line two large trays with parchment paper.
Cut each half into 8 equal parts, and form the buns either in the traditional way (squares folded like an envelope) or in roses.

For the traditional shapes roll out the dough into squares, place a humpy tbsp filling in the middle and fold up the corners, pinch them together tightly, and place the buns on a tray lined with parchment paper.
For the roses, roll out the dough into circles and follow the image instructions from  "Bucataresele vesele". Again, place the buns on the tray, and let them sit covered for 5 minutes. Meanwhile whip the egg lightly with some water for the egg wash.
Brush the buns with the egg and bake them on the middle shelve for 17 minutes.
Let them cool on a rack covered with a kitchen towel for 10-15 minutes, and they are ready to enjoy!
Bon appétit!

Crumbled biscuity tea cake

Guests? Relax.. This cake has some "sure to find in the party" ingredients, gets put together in max 10 minutes, and in an hour you just have to wait to cool a bit.
Bonus: kids can be totally involved into the making.
Holidays are for gatherings, and cookie munching anyway. :)
Hanging around the house and not doing much will definitely bring our youngest one, and mom, looking for the next cookie to be baked.
To make things worse, I found a German pastry, cookie, cake book given a long while ago by my mom, and I decided to bake as many of them as I can and of course find appealing.
Here is one easy tea cake, more like a butter biscuit coming in form of a cookie.

Ingredients
200 g butter
200 g sugar
500 g flour
1 egg
50 g almond flour
1lemon zest
dash of vanilla extract
1 tp baking powder
100 g sourish jam, like apricot, raspberry or plum. I chose plum 'cause I love it :)

Prepare a 26 cm round cake form by lining the bottom and sides with parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 180 C, 350 F.
Mix the baking powder in the flour.
Mix the butter with the sugar until creamy. Add the egg and mix few spoons of flour. The batter becomes drier, and exchange the mixer to your bare hands to mix in lightly the rest of the flour, until a crumble like batter forms.
Divide it into two equal parts.
Add half to the bottom of the form, spread and kinda press lightly until the surface is a bit homogeneous and the jam can be spread on top. Spread the jam evenly.
Mix the almond flour to the remaining butter and leave some larger crumbles. Spread it on top of the jam.
Place the cake on the lower (or second lowest if you have 5 racks) level, and bake for 45 minutes.
Let it cool a bit on a rack, sift some powder sugar on the top, and enjoy with warm tea. Bonne appetite!

Raspberry cream cake

Before all, apologies for the picture quality... we were in kinda hurry to get ready for the party and got a lousy replacement phone in action to document the baking.. Anyway...
Birthdays! They are always a good opportunity to eat something sweet.. and at celebrations we can do it guilt free :).
The kids found a video of a berry cake, and there was no way I can avoid baking one. Well, it was the easy challenge, and I quickly jumped into accepting it.
Plus, it is a light(er) treat compared to the average cake.
To make it even lighter replace the heavy whipping cream-cream cheese mix with yogurt, and in general play around with various fillings..

Ingredients for a 12 portion cake
Sponge cake
10 eggs
water
12 tbsp sugar
12 tbsp flour
2 tbsp oil
1 lemon zest
dash of vanilla extract

raspberry jam o fill the spongecake roll

Cream filling
9 oz fresh raspberries
4 fresh blueberries (optional, replace with raspberries)
200 g, 7 oz sugar
gelatine for 2 quarts liquid, I used 3 bags of gelatine powder
1/2 pound cream cheese
6 large tbsp sour cream
1 quart heavy whipping cream (you can replace it with natural yogurt)
juice of 1 freshly squeezed lemon, left from the sponge cake
dash of vanilla extract

Bake the sponge cake.
Prepare a large tray. Line baking paper in the bottom, and lightly butter both the paper and the sides that
In a larger bowl beat the 10 egg whites with water equaling 2 eggshells filled.
Start beating the egg whites, when lightly beaten add gradually half of the sugar (6 tbsp) and the water.
Beat until soft peaks form, but do not over beat.
In another bowl mix the egg yolks with the other half of the sugar (6 tbsp), add the 2 tbsp of oil, mix lightly into the egg whites. Add the lemon zest.
Last, sift in the 12 tbsp flour, gradually and lightly mixing it into the eggs.
Bake at 180 C, 350 F for 12 minutes.
Remove from oven and roll it up with the help of the parchment paper. Keep it tight for 15 minutes until cools down slightly. Slowly roll it out and spread a thin layer of jam on the sponge cake. Roll it back, and let it sit for another 15-20 minutes.
Meanwhile prepare the cream.

Lightly beat the cream cheese with the sour cream in a smaller bowl. In a larger bowl beat the whipping cream and mix in the cream cheese-sour cream mixture, vanilla extract, lemon juice, adding the gelatin at the end.
How you prepare the gelatin depends on the type you have, but it should be enough to make 2 quarts of liquid rather jelly-ish. I lightly warmed up 5 tbsp cream, added the gelatin powder and mixed it into the cream-cream cheese mixture.

Prepare a round bowl, about 3 quarts, with plastic wrap all around.
Slice the sponge cake in thin slices, about 1 cm (3/8") thick and cover the sides of the bowl tightly with the slices. Leave some for the top.

Poor some cream mixture into the bowl, hitting every now and then to make the cream fill in the gaps between the sponge cake slices. Add a handful of raspberries, poor more cream, more berries, more cream.. and so on.., approximately 3 layers of berries between 4 layers of cream.

Fill it almost to the top, leave place for the bottom to be layer of sponge cake.
Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 6 hours.
Before serving remove from fridge and decorate with a handful of raspberries and mint leaves.
In our family it was a hit among the kids as it was creamy but not too sweet, and the jam and fresh raspberry and lemon gave an extra kick.
Bon apetite!

Brownie cheescake - sajttorta brownie

It looks like I'm Americanizing my baking, which will be the case with some pies coming soon to our table, but this brownie ironically had been on our menu for years.. not less than 10 years.. OMG.. time really flies.
The recipe came from a fellow social network addict back in 2003, living in France, loving cheese, and chocolate I suppose :).
It has two types of cheese, so no wonder why the recipe made it to France :).
It is a nice way to get your kids eat cottage cheese and ricotta, if they are not mad about them in any form already, like mine.
The recipe is sooo easy, the challenging part is to let it sit for a day in the fridge.. nooohoohhooo way :D. Ok, this time might work as I finished it at 9 in the evening, and I keep fingers crossed that nobody wants to dill their belly with sweets for the night.

Ingredients
Cheesecake
250 g ricotta (farmers cheese, cottage cheese will do it)
150 g farmers cheese (cottage cheese, maitorahka :))
4 tbsp powder sugar
small dash of vanilla extract
2 eggs
120 g heavy whipping cream
2 tbsp flour

Brownie
200 g butter (2 sticks)
300 g dark chocolate (or semisweet chocolate chips)
6 eggs
200 g powder sugar
ash of vanilla extract
150 g flour (1 cup, or 250 ml)
pinch salt

Prepare a deeper tray, 5 cm - 2 inch, by lining parchment paper on the bottom and buttering/ flouring the sides. Preheat the oven to 180 C, 350 F.
 Prepare the cheesecake. Mix the ricotta, farmers cheese, sugar, vanilla, 2 eggs (adding them one by one and working them well in the batter), at the end add the whipping cream and flour. You'll get a yogurt like liquid batter. Scoop it into a piping bag.

Melt the chocolate with the butter over water bath or in the microwave.
In another bowl mix well the eggs with the sugar and vanilla. Add the melted chocolate, flour and pinch of salt to the butter-sugar mix.
Scoop the butter in the tray, and dip the top of the piping bag in the batter. Start gently pressing, while slowly moving the bag in zig-zag, or as you like until you empty the bag. The cheesecake does not have to be visible on the top, it just happened that as I managed to poor it the way it looks.
Bake for 35 minutes on the middle rack. Let it cool, and refrigerate it for 4 hours, or better a day.
Serve cut in roughly 4x4 cm, 1.5x1.5" cubes.. be en garde!, and grab some before it is gone! :)
Bon appétit!

Lohikeitto - Finnish salmon soup

Phew, what a day.. 9 fires in San Diego, Santa Ana blowing crazy the whole day tormenting the trees, and some 38C in shade.
Nothing like baking, or even cooking, time, but I promised to bring lunch for our teacher, and nothing less but Finnish Salmon soup.
Salmon soup is a kinda big win 'cause is ready in 25 minutes, plus prep, (which is much better than cooking goulash), and gets equally many compliments (almost) than the goulash.. Almost, not because it's worse, but because has quite some half-half in it, which is not the easiest meal for a stomach :)

All in all, it is totally worth making it!
Start by hitting the stores for fresh salmon. I went for a combination of sockeye salmon and wild salmon file, which gives an extra kick to at least the looks ;), and the rest of the ingredients is most probably laying in your pantry.

Ingredients
400-500 g, 1 pound salmon
4 medium carrots
6 medium potatoes
2 onions, or 1 American onion (for some reason they are extreeeeeeemly buge)
200 ml half-half, cream (ruokakerma ;))
bay leaves, salt, black pepper
dill, 3-5 tbsp, depends on your preferences
water

Take a medium sized pot, minimum 3 liters.
Clean the potatoes, onion and carrot. Chop the carrots in thin slices, and cut the potatoes in not too small pieces, about 2x2 cm, or 1x1 inch.
There are two choices how to start cooking:
1) Put the potatoes, onion, carrot and add water until covered plus 3 cm, 4 inch.
2) Chop the onions. Add 3 spoons of oil, I prefer sunflower oil, heat it up, add the finely chopped onions, and fry them until golden. Add a generous dash of water, and continue simmering until it is reduced back to oil only. It caramelizes the onions and gives it a smooth texture and taste. That's what I did... Next add the finely slices carrots, and potatoes, stir just couple of times, and then fill with water until all covered, plus the 3 cm, 4 inch.

Either way, now add the spices: a tsp of salt, large pinch of pepper and 2-3 bay leaves.
Cook for 15 minutes, until it is almost fully cooked.
Meanwhile cut the salmon in generous cubes, 4x4 cm, or 11/2x1 1/2 inches.
Add the salmon and add finely chopped dill, leaving some for serving.
Adjust the water level, saltiness and amount of black pepper if needed, the potatoes will most probably soak up some.. If you like a less thick soup add more water, but in general is best as is, a bit more thick than the average Hungarian soup.
Cook for only 5 more minutes. Add the cream, wait until it starts bubbling and remove from the heat.
Serve with a pinch of fresh dill on top.
Bon appetite!

Ps. It can be served even cold, or colder, which makes it more appealing in this hot weather.